


This Is Not Your Earth, John Carter, Nor Is This Your Mars

by zinc_chameleon



Category: A Princess of Mars, Edgar Rice Burroughs'
Genre: Orgin of Red Men of Mars and Tharks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-13
Updated: 2016-07-13
Packaged: 2018-07-23 19:54:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,031
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7477707
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zinc_chameleon/pseuds/zinc_chameleon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The talk that should have occurred between Matai Shang and the captive John Carter in the spectacular flop "John Carter".  Matai Shang explains John Carter's true situation to him. This talk would have raised the ante for his heroic deeds.</p>
            </blockquote>





	This Is Not Your Earth, John Carter, Nor Is This Your Mars

THIS IS NOT YOUR EARTH, JOHN CARTER, NOR IS THIS YOUR MARS

John Carter squirmed in the ninth-ray cords that wrapped around his body, hobbling him. He was close enough to his true enemy to squeeze the life out of him with his bare hands, but instead he was as helpless as a newborn. 

Matai Shang waved his hand over John Carter's throat, the writhing blue cords loosening a little. "That's better, I believe," Matai Shang began. "Now we can talk. I'm sure you have many questions, just as I am sure you have a large number of wrong answers to those same questions."

"All I want to do is to get my hands around your Thern throat," John Carter rasped.

"So that you could remain ignorant until your last breath? How Earth-like of you," Matai Shang gloated.

A cold hatred swept over John Carter's heart. "All right then, school master, begin your little lesson."

Matai Shang eyed him suspiciously. "Playing for time, are you? Good. You'll need first to discover where in time and then in space you really are." The Hecator of the Therns drew a flat round object from within the folds of his robe. "I'd like you to take a look at this device. It's going to show you the Earth as it is, right now. I've set it for the eastern seaboard of America, along the coasts of Virginia and the Carolinas. Let's see if you can recognize a detail or two." He held it in front of John Carter, and the hero could not resist taking a look.

"I see a salt marsh, and a coastline with coral. You must be mistaken," John Carter answered, his slow response caused by his attention to detail. "You're showing me something from the South Caribbean, or maybe the South Pacific. Are you sure your device works?" John Carter said, with a barely suppressed snarl to his voice.

"The images you see are coming in live--another aspect of Ninth Ray technology--just wait for a moment." The Thern encouraged.

The image expanded to a tiny part of the salt marsh. A creature--cleary a predator on the hunt--emerged from behind a large mound of coral, gently gliding on the wet sand until it found its prey, a scaly fish with extraordinarily large jaws that had beached itself, writhing in water too shallow for its armored gills. The predator had a shape very familiar to the desert-tested Virginian.

"That's a scorpion!" John Carter exclaimed, interested in spite of his predicament. "But that can't be! There's no scorpion on Earth that size!"

Matai Shang's right eyebrow arched in amusement. "Correct. That is because, Captain John Carter of Virginia. This is not your Earth. This is Jasoom, as Dejah Thoris has been insisting. I'm going to proceed slowly, because the shock of the knowledge I'm going to impart may be too much, even for a man of courage such as yourself."

"You will regret it if you lie to me," John Carter warned.

"Yes, I would. It would mean I lost the chance to challenge a worthy opponent, and those are few and far between in the life of a Thern," Matai Shang replied, a tone of wistfulness in his voice. "Let me be blunt about it, Captain. If this was your Earth, you would be living over four hundred million years in your past. I take it the mathematics of this statement aren't too great a challenge for you?"

"I've commanded batteries of cannons; I can handle the arithmetic," John Carter replied stonily. "Get on with it."

"Then now I have to deliver my knock-down punch. This is not your Mars, either. You are eight parallel universes removed from your place in space as well as four hundred million years in time. You probably thought--having listened to Dejah Thoris--that she discovered a hidden energy source of unlimited power. In truth your mare has been drinking from our well."

"You're telling me that this Ninth Ray Dejah goes on about is simply your property, like someone's gold mine?

"Not the strongest comparison, but yes, she's basically a claim jumper." 

"I'd be careful about insulting Dejah in my presence, if I were you," John Carter growled.

Matai Shang raised an open hand, a sign for John Carter to stop and listen closely. "You don't think we Therns serve a higher power, but we do. It is the Goddess who assigned these nine parallel universes to my race, long before your Earth was born out of your Sun. When I said we do her bidding, I meant it in all truth."

"You might have heard of the Christian God that I follow," John Carter countered. "He would never allow an upright innocent one like Dejah to suffer your kind of injustice."

Matai Shang smiled enigmatically. "That is why we are having this conversation. I wish to offer both you and Dejah a challenge. Should you defeat us by your courage, and her intelligence, we Thern will grant you and your descendants one thousand years of peace. After that, however, Barsoom will meet its doom, whether you like it or not."

"How do I know that you will keep your word?" John Carter replied brusquely.

"Because I will tell you a secret. We do not and cannot control all the animals native to this planet. If you and Dejah surround yourself with calots like Woolah, we will not be able to infiltrate your domiciles or attack without warning." 

"What do I owe you for this piece of powerful military intelligence?" John Carter asked suspiciously.

"Nothing except a debt of gratitude for the Voice of Barsoom, which we Therns created to lift up the Tharks from their baser natures, as exemplified by the Warhoons."

John Carter leaned back for a moment, cogitating. "You're telling me that a great deal of what I've discovered on this planet is of your doing, the good and the bad?"

"You're not as much of an ignorant savage as I thought," Matai Shang replied. "All right then, let's see you escape from Zodanga, and the contest will be on. I for one wish you well, John Carter."

**Author's Note:**

> I believe the Edgar Rice Burroughs had intended to show John Carter looking at a Jurassic Earth through one of the Martian telescopes, but that it never made it into the Mars series. Might only be an urban myth (but a good one).


End file.
